Rising From The Ashes
by Luaithreach
Summary: The nuke blew up Manhattan. The Avengers failed. Loki is king of Earth. SHIELD was destroyed. And the Avengers didn't just fail, they died. Or did they? No, they didn't. They're rising from the ashes of Manhattan to avenge the Earth. Rated T for violence.


**Hey. I found the Avengers and Thor within the last two months and have been driving myself crazy with ideas that either don't make sense, don't work, or someone else had already done them. But I think nobody's done this yet and it seemed to work in my mind, so here it goes!**

* * *

In people's imaginations and in movies and books and the like, if it's a bad day the sky is grey. Grey clouds cover the sky as far as the eye can see, no break in the tightly woven quilt, no sunshine, just grey clouds. Or it might be raining. Big, fat raindrops. The water pours and pours from the sky, never stopping, just pouring and pouring. Never stopping because why would it? The weather works around peoples' moods. Bad day or bad mood, bad weather.  
Almost nobody stops to think that the sun might actually be shining because the weather _doesn't_ actually work around moods. If it did, the sky would be dark for all eternities, because everyday, someone somewhere is having a bad day.  
Almost nobody stops to the think that the sun would shine because they _don't_ control the weather.  
So the sun shines. And it seems wrong. Because everyone imagines that it will be raining. Or the sky will be grey. But no, the sun shines.

* * *

It all happened so fast. The way the battle seemed to pause when the jet flew over her head and dropped a ladder down and Agent Hill screaming at her to '_Get on board _now_!_' The way she saw the bomb drop on Manhattan, at the cloud ascend. The way Manhattan started to catch fire. And the way that she could see the Chitauri coming after her and the jet.

And now, Natasha Romanoff wanted to scream. She wanted to scream because the council had decided to blow up Manhattan. She wanted to scream because Director Fury and the rest of SHIELD hadn't been able to stop the nuke. She wanted to scream because Loki and most of the Chitauri had survived the nuke while everyone else on the island died. She wanted to scream because SHIELD had been able to save her, but not the citizens of Manhattan. She wanted to scream because, even though she had been at war and Manhattan had been blown up, the sun was still shining. It was a stupid, really, to think that the sun shouldn't shine because it was a bad day.

The sun would always rise, just as it would always set, until the end of time. And it would always be there, no matter the weather, hidden by the clouds. It had always been there. And it always would be. So of course it would shine, even to—

"Hey, Nat, you there?" Clint's voice coming from her earpiece broke Natasha's trail of thought.

"Yeah."

"Can you see it?"

"See what? The end of Manhattan or the Chitauri coming after this jet?"

"Neither. The portal's closing."

"Good." Natasha got up from the bench she was sitting on and walked over to a window. "Oh," she said. "Wow."

The edge of the portal had turned grey and was exploding inwards.

"That's something, huh?" Natasha could practically hear Clint's smile.

"Yeah. That's something."

A blast sent Natasha flying towards the ceiling. Alarms blared as the jet began spinning upside-down and began to lose altitude.

"Critical hit, lost a wing!" Agent Hill cried from the cockpit.

"Hill, take the jet down. I repeat, take the jet down," Fury's voice crackled through the comm.

"But, sir, they'll get us."

"Agent Hill, for the last time, take the jet _down_."

Natasha turned back to the window. "Hey, Clint."

"Yeah? What's wrong?"

"We've been hit."

"So've we. But we're still going. Just missed our engine. How bad's yours?"

"Critical. Lost a wing. Currently spinning around in circles. We're going to go down."

"What? I'm losing you, Nat," Clint's voice crackled. Static for a couple of seconds, and then silence. The line had gone dead.

"Clint?"

No reply.

"Clint?!"

Still nothing.

"Agent Romanoff, we're going to have to bring the jet down." Agent Hill called back to her. The jet was beginning to stabilise again, but they were still losing altitude.

"Ok. Why are you telling me?"

"Because you're going to have to jump."

"What, down there? You might not have noticed, but everything's burning. Not to mention the radiation that's probably out there. I'm fine being myself, I don't need a Hulk. And if that doesn't happen, I don't need cancer!"

"Agent Romanoff, I'm sorry, it's the only way. If you stay on this jet, which is expected to explode at any minute, you'll either die or be captured."

Natasha nodded. "What about you?"

"I'm coming with you."

"And the pilot?"

"The captain must go down with the ship, Agent Romanoff," the pilot said.

Natasha nodded. She reached for a parachute. A cold hand caught her wrist. "No parachute. They'll see you for sure if you have one. We'll get close enough to the ground before jumping. Ok?" Agent Hill asked.

"Ok."

"We're getting pretty close now, ladies. And this thing'll crash in a second. I'd say now is a good time to jump." The pilot sounded sad but determined.

"Agent Romanoff, are you ready?" Agent Hill asked as she opened a hatch in the floor of the jet. The ground looked about ten feet below them.

"Yeah. Countdown, or just jump?"

Seven feet.

Five.

"Jump!"

And they jumped. The jet flew over them and crashed just over then feet away from them. It exploded. Natasha watched as the Chitauri turned around.

"You ok?" Agent Hill shouted over the roar of the explosion.

"Think so. You?"

Hill gave her a thumbs up. And Natasha just lay there. Ignoring the pain in her right leg, which was probably broken, she just lay there, thinking about how the sun was still there, behind the cloud and the smoke. It was still there and still shining.

* * *

**So, that's the prologue done. Was it ok? Should I continue? You decide! (That sounded like an ad, didn't it? Oh well) Tell me in a review! Ok, then..thats it. Ok. Thanks! **

**Luaithreach xxx**


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